


TV Performance

by awgaskarth0805



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:20:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26757157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awgaskarth0805/pseuds/awgaskarth0805
Summary: Alex wakes up feeling sick with no voice on the day the boys are supposed to appear on Conan.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	TV Performance

**Author's Note:**

> This is a request, and based off of the performance ATL did on Conan back in 2011!

“Guys, I think we have to go force Alex to get up now,” Zack said, looking up from his phone to look at Rian and Jack, who were in the front lounge of the bus with him.  
“Do we really need to? Don’t we still have, like, a couple hours before we get to Conan?” Jack asked, looking at the time on his phone.  
“Jack, we’re going to be there in a little under an hour, and we’re only going to have about twenty minutes until we have to go on once we get to the studio. I think Zack is right, we need to get him up. He can sleep more on the way to the hotel after we play the show. Come on, let’s force him to get him up,” Rian explained, starting to stand up.   
Seconds later, the three of them heard coughing coming from the bunk area. They all shared a look of confusion as footsteps started to make their way to the front lounge.   
Alex came into the room looking exhausted; his hair was messier than it normally was in the morning, he had dark circles under his eyes, his face was pale, and he had his comforter wrapped around his shoulders.   
“Are you okay, Alex? You don’t look so good,” Jack observed, as Alex took a seat on the couch next to him.   
“I feel terrible,” Alex replied in a raspy voice, pulling his blanket tighter around him.   
Jack felt Alex’s forehead, and his eyes widened when he realized how warm his forehead was.  
“You’re burning up, dude. How’re you going to play Conan in, like, an hour?” Jack continued.  
“Do you think you can at all? Your voice is literally on the edge of being gone, and you look awful,” Rian added.  
“Thanks for that,” Alex rolled his eyes as he coughed some more.  
“Rian’s got a point, man. Do you really think you can perform like this?” Zack continued.  
“I mean, I don’t think I’ll do well, but this is such a big deal for the band. I don’t want to be the reason we’d back out, especially so last minute, that would give us a bad reputation, which could hurt us in the future,” Alex explained.  
“I guess you have a decent point there. We have a little less than an hour until we’re supposed to get to the studio, so we need to do anything we can to ensure that your voice will be as okay as it can be for the three minutes we’re going to be onstage,” Jack stated.  
“Jack’s right, you should take a hot shower, take something, and maybe have some hot tea. Oh, and you also need to go on vocal rest,” Zack suggested.  
“Yeah, I think-“ Alex started.  
“Alex, don’t talk! You need to be on vocal rest now,” Rian interrupted.  
“I’m sorry, I-“   
“Alex, just don’t talk, starting now. Go get a shower and get ready, and we’ll make you some tea or something,” Jack said back.   
Alex just gave his friends a thumbs up, before slowly getting up, and making his way out of the front lounge, so he could shower.  
“I can’t believe that out of all days, he gets sick and loses his voice on the day we’re supposed to perform on national TV. I’m not mad at him, obviously, but what kind of luck is that?” Rian asked, once he was sure that Alex was out of earshot.  
“Yeah, the timing sucks, and I can tell he feels awful. I can’t believe he didn’t want to back out, like, I don’t know if he’ll even be able to get through the whole song,” Jack pointed out.  
“I agree. As far as the performance goes, I’ll sing more backup than usual, so if his voice starts to give out or something, it’ll hopefully be less obvious,” Zack stated.  
“That’s a good idea. It’s a damn good think we don’t have a show after this,” Rian continued.  
“You’ve got that right. I’m going to go ahead and get some tea ready for him,” Jack decided, getting up, and walking over to the kitchenette.   
About fifteen minutes later, Alex came back out to the front lounge. His hair was wet from his shower, and was dressed, but still had his comforter wrapped around him again.  
“Did the hot shower help at all?” Zack asked, as Jack brought over the tea he’d made.   
Instead of saying something, Alex just shrugged his shoulders, as he started to slowly sip at his tea.  
“Well, hopefully it did something good. I think you should stay on vocal rest until right before we start to play,” Rian suggested, to which Alex gave a thumbs up in agreement.  
“Can we do anything else to help you before we go on?” Jack continued.   
Alex just shook his head, as he continued to drink his tea. The rest of the ride over to the studio was silent, all four of them were too nervous about how the performance would go to speak.   
Eventually, they finally got to the studio, and once they made sure they had everything they needed, they made their way inside.  
“Zack and I are going to go talk to the crew and let them know about what’s going on with Alex. Jack, why don’t you go sit in the green room with Alex? We’ll come get you guys when it’s time,” Rian suggested, once they finally got inside.  
“Sure, let’s go relax until it’s showtime, Alex,” Jack replied, before walking over to the green room with Alex.   
As soon as they got there, Alex took a seat on the couch, and put his head into his hands, raising Jack’s concerns.  
“Hey, are you okay? Just talk to answer, that’ll be easier,”  
“No, I’m really not. People are going to think we’re awful, all because my voice decided to give out on an important day,”  
“No, I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen. You sound sick, I bet people are just going to think that’s what’s going on. Besides, our actual fans are going to think we did great, and they’re going to be so proud of you for getting through this while not feeling so hot. Hey, how’re you feeling, as far as being sick goes?” Jack continued.   
Alex lifted his head to look at his friend.  
‘Honestly, pretty awful. Like, I feel so tired and out of it. My throat is killing me, my voice sounds like this, I-“   
Alex cut himself off by starting to cough again. Jack scooted closer to Alex and rubbed his back until he finally regained his breath.  
“That does sound bad, especially since it had to happen today. Actually, I can’t believe all of this just snuck up on you today like this,”  
“Well, I did feel a bit off yesterday, but I didn’t think that it would turn into this,”  
“Dude, you should’ve said something! Oh well, it’s too late for that now, we just have to focus on giving the best performance we can, and you’re going to spend the rest of the day after this resting, since we have a show tomorrow, and I doubt you’ll want to do it feeling like this,” Jack explained.  
“You’ve got that right, man. I’ve been so excited for this performance for a long time, but now I just want it to be over with,”   
“That’s understandable, man. I’m sure it’ll be just fine, and the three of us have your back, so it’s all going to be okay, I promise,” Jack assured, giving his friend a smile.   
The two of them stayed silent, aside from Alex’s occasional coughing, until it was finally time for them to go on. Rian and Zack came back for them like they said they would, then the four of them walked out to where they’d be performing.   
The lights were down so they could get set up and wait for their cue, without being seen by the crowd. As they waited, Alex started to realize just how weak he was feeling; his guitar felt heavy, and his throat started to hurt even more.  
“Alright, my next guests are from Baltimore, Maryland. They are here today with a song from their latest album, Dirty Work, please welcome All Time Low!” Conan announced, as the crowd started to cheer.   
The cameras turned and the lights started to come up, as everyone started to play their parts. While waiting for his cue to sing, Alex coughed more, hoping to clear his throat some, since he knew that might help him in getting through the performance.   
When Alex started to sing, his voice was shaky, but it was better than what he and his bandmates had expected. He couldn’t hit some of the higher notes in the chorus, but luckily Zack’s backing vocals mostly made up for this.   
Once the second chorus had ended, Jack could tell that Alex was getting frustrated with himself, so he subtly made his way over to Alex, and gave him an encouraging smile and nod. Alex gave him a small smile back, as he started to play the guitar riff of the bridge. When he went to sing the bridge, Alex’s voice sounded as strained as it felt, and it took everything in him to push the notes out and continue going on.   
In the last chorus, Alex’s voice cracked faltered some, which only added to his built-up frustration. Alex wanted to run offstage as soon as the last note faded out, but he knew he couldn’t, so he put on a fake smile as Conan came over to them and shook their hands. The audience cheered loudly, but this didn’t matter to Alex. He knew that if he’d been well, he could’ve given a much better performance, and he hated it.   
Not much longer, the lights went back down, so the show could break for commercial, and Alex took this as his opportunity to use the last little bit of energy he had to bolt offstage, and over to the green room he’d sat in with Jack earlier.   
He took a seat on the couch, and put his head into his hands, as he felt tears start to form in his eyes. These weren’t tears of sadness, but of frustration and anger at himself. Not much longer, he started to shiver, so he curled up on himself, wanting to be warm without changing positions.   
Alex stayed like this for a few minutes until he heard the door open, making him look up and see his friends, who all had sympathetic looks on their faces.  
“How’re you feeling? Are you okay?” Jack asked, as they all started to make their way over to Alex.  
“That was fucking awful,” Alex replied.  
“Alex, it really wasn’t that bad. When you left the stage, Conan said-“ Rian started.  
“I don’t care what he said, I care about what everyone watching thought. That was on national TV, so many people probably saw that and think that we’re not good now, as a result. This was supposed to be a great opportunity for us, and I feel like I fucked it up,” Alex frantically explained, coughing again.  
“Hey, Alex, it’s okay. You didn’t ruin anything for the band. Being on the show gave us the exposure we wanted,” Zack tried.  
“Zack’s right, also, I’m sure anyone who listened to that performance could tell that you weren’t feeling great, so the fact that you still went out there and did what you did really says something, and I bet that’s what people will take away from it,” Rian added.  
“I hear what you guys are saying, but it’s so hard to not be pissed off at myself about it,”   
“Alex, you went onstage feeling absolutely miserable, and did your very best, just so we could still do this appearance. I know it’s all super frustrating right now, but this will eventually not feel like a big deal anymore. Someday, you’ll be able to laugh at that epic voice crack at the end of the last chorus!” Jack exclaimed, laughing some as the other three rolled their eyes.  
“I guess you’re right, I’m probably just taking everything too seriously and am being a perfectionist. Thanks for talking some sense into me, guys,” Alex replied, smiling at his friends.  
“No problem, man. do you want to go back to the bus now, so we can go to the hotel, and you can rest for tomorrow’s show?” Jack suggested.  
“That sounds perfect,” Alex said, coughing some as he slowly got to his feet.   
His friends led him out of the green room, ad over to the bus. Alex still wished that the performance had gone better, but he knew that he did his best, and that as long as he had his band by his side, that everything would be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is a request for IveGotRedHair! Like I said, it's based off of their Conan performance, but I changed a few details about everything! I know I probably sound like a broken record, but please continue sending in requests! Maybe some fall/Halloween ones now that it's October? Thank you guys so much for reading my work, it really means the world. Lots of love, Liv.


End file.
